WWU
Red Square: A Place of Belonging
As a first year student living off campus, it’s difficult to make connections with other students and feel as though you have a place to belong on the Western Washington University campus. Between classes, off campus students don’t have a dorm community to hang out at, and they have other responsibilities outside of school that make it difficult to identify with on campus peers. Some places on campus, such as the Underground Coffeehouse, make you feel even more excluded as you look around at everyone socializing with their new friends and roommates. It seems as though everyone has a place on campus to be except you, that’s a scary feeling.
As you make your way across Western Washington University, chances are that you’ll eventually end up in Red Square, formerly known as “Campus Quad”. A large brick square with tall academic buildings on all sides, a stunning fountain in the middle and a seemingly endless amount of students buzzing around. Looking around it seems like any other social place on campus, but Red Square is entirely different. The fact that Red Square is enclosed by academic buildings on all sides makes it an ideal place for students to relax between classes. I think it is because of this sense of focus toward school that you don’t feel left out or alone sitting in the grass by yourself or studying on one of the many picnic tables provided within the square. It is the perfect place for off campus students, like me, to discover a sense of community.
This sense of community is very important as a first year college student, whether you live on campus or not. Most students leave the comfort of their families to attend college, and need something new to hold onto and help them feel more comfortable and at home. Without this sense of community it becomes difficult to focus on school because all you can think about is how miserable you are on campus. The Red Square gives students that feel this way somewhere to be. Somewhere that they can relax and release some of the stress that goes along with being a college student. Many students use Red Square as a social place and meet up with friends, others sit in the grass, on the fountain or on the picnic tables and study. Red Square is also unique because its purpose changes with the weather. On nice sunny days it is used as a place to relax
and study between classes, but when theweather gets cold and rainy most of these students go elsewhere and the square transforms and becomes a stepping stone to get from one side of campus to the other. Because of the many different ways people utilize Red Square it’s hard for any one purpose to be done extremely well. For example, if there are lots of people socializing, Red Square fulfils its purpose as a place to get together with friends. But if there is a lot of socializing going on it makes it hard for other students to study because of the noise, making Red Square a bad place to study. It’s strange to me how one place can be so diverse in the possibilities of its purpose and the fact that its effectiveness in fulfilling these purposes varies from day to day.
Overall, Red Square does a great job of fulfilling its purpose as a place for off campus students to reside before and after classes and find a sense of community within Western. But the square isn’t just for off campus students either, many students that live in dorms hangout, study and relax in the square as well. Next time you’re in Red Square, take a look around and say hello to someone, you never know who you’re going to meet.